Stellenbosch is a bustling university town in the heart of South African wine country. Set apart, sprawling on the hill and looking down into Stellenbosch is the sleepy Kayamandi where during the day the kids are in school and there is not much going on. My work group was stationed at Kuyasa, a school-like facility, which was where we all started each day. My group consisted of 13 people all of whom were eager to accomplish a lot. We took on 5 projects that we promised to get done and 1 maybe project of we finished with everything early. In the 3 days given to us our group painted the front and side of Kuyasa, painted and installed baseboards in 2 classrooms, and fixed the rubber flooring in the classrooms. We did some gardening and yard work at the safe houses for girls as well as painted. We filled in sand on a new playstructure, painted and fixed up the laundry room, and painted the music room. While doing all this we still managed to find time to high five and "shop shop" (a kind of handshake) the kids who were always around. It was a big 3 days but with God's help everything went almost exactly according to plan. This was an amazing experience to be able to plan and then deliver what we had said we would.
-Reuben Van Gaalen
These past 2 weeks have been spent in the community of Kayamandi, one of which was spent planning a project we were to carry out in a time slot of 3 days. I was in a group at a place called Legacy, which had a wonderful reading program for student s up to Grade 8. Our project consisted of creating 2 concrete flower pots in the front walkway, as well as painting the floor along the walk. To involve the community we received help from a man working in another part of Legacy, the community garden. This was a fun learning experience, testing both our patience and creativity. After our project, we had the wonderful opportunity to hear the children's choir sing for us. Overall, this project was a fun way to bless the community of Kayamandi.
-Kate Fishwick
While we were in Kayamandi, my group had the chance to help with an organization called Prochorus. We were able to paint play structures at 3 different creches (preschools) and a wall mural. It was amazing to work alongside the children and workers as we brightened the front of their school. We used red, yellow, green and blue paint and created a jungle scene complete with a lion and a monkey. Even though we could not necessarily understand what the children were saying, we could tell how excited the children were to see the completed results and know that they had helped make it beautiful.
-Alyssa Laird
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